Brave Learner Conference Post 5 "Julie Bogart, Brave Writer, Brave Learner"

I traveled to Cincinnati to the Brave Learner Conference in July to hear Julie Bogart speak in person and I hoped for the chance to meet her, too.  I got to do both!  A few years ago, I heard about the Brave Writer curriculum when I was looking at writing programs for my teen son.  We had already used some other popular writing programs for several years and were looking for a change.  Somehow, I found Julie's videos on Youtube and as I listened to her speak, I became intrigued.  Julie was not just talking about how to teach kids to write, she was sharing so much support about home education!  One of the first videos I found was called The Natural Stages of Growth as a Home Educator and I finally felt so understood and couldn't wait to hear more from this wonderful educator of educators!  Her video helped me to see that my situation, which felt so unique to me, was somewhat normal and other people had also gone through something similar.

I naturally have to work at accepting change.  As I was going through a change in our home schooling method and that would also change our community, I felt like so many of my personal home educating friends had not experienced what I was going through.  When we began home schooling, in 2006-07, I used one curriculum and method for our first five years of home schooling with an online support message board and some participation in a local co-op.  That kept us all very busy and fulfilled.  As the children grew, I felt the need to join a more academic classical community and we became fully invested in that curriculum and our friendships there, while I tutored and offered leadership within that community for five years.

Eventually, it was time to make a change again.  The logistics of working out classes with a group of older kids in our local community wasn't happening and so we would have to travel again after we had put so much work into developing our own local community. My kids just didn't want to do that anymore.  I was also learning that the curriculum for high school in this group was not the right fit for us.  However, it was much harder for me to grieve this loss of community than for my own kids!  They still had other friends that they were in contact with, but I felt like I was losing the weekly interaction of working with this team of parents and didn't have anything like it because we were going back to home educating independent of a co-op.  The change was hard for me.  So, in about 2017, I was still searching for this missing sense of community when I found Julie.  I was trying to do the right thing for the kids and trying to enjoy it, but felt like I was much more alone in our home schooling than I had felt in a long time. 

Then Julie's videos entered my life.  It was the perfect time for me to hear of the natural stages of growth in home education.  I needed to hear that other parents had gone before me and had tried some things, found methods that worked, but eventually needed to make changes, too.  All of my friends in my classical community were totally set on using that particular classical program all the way through high school with all of their children and really emphasized that for everyone in the group, but it wasn't working for our family anymore.  

In The Natural Stages of Growth as a Home Educator, Julie described how she had also been in a homeschooling co-op and had left for other reasons, but that it was a tough experience for her.  I appreciated her kindness and warmth and how she was trying to help me understand how I was growing as a home educator and it was not really about the method or approach that I was using.  She also helped me see that this journey is about me as much as it is about the kids.  Julie has helped me understand the value of my own growth as an educator and a person, in addition to the growth of the children.  Suddenly, I felt understood and accepted!  I started watching her videos and taking notes to coach myself.  Eventually, I joined the Homeschool Alliance, where Julie and her coaches support and encourage other home educating parents along the way.

Julie and Me, 2019

Now, after having been a part of the Brave Writer and Homeschool Alliance communities for a couple of years, I have grown so much in my own understanding of my family and our own home education journey.  Reading Julie's new book, The Brave Learner, during the senior year of my oldest child was emotional for me because I could see so much of myself in her descriptions as I reminisced about our thirteen years of home schooling.  Julie's writing edified the things I did well and helped me laugh at some things I could have done differently.  She is still teaching me more.   I have learned to focus on the relationships with my children instead of the curriculum, which was why I started home educating them in the first place!  I wanted to spend quality time with our kids and we still get to do that, even if it looks a little different.

Julie has shared so many personal stories in her books, her videos, and in her supportive Homeschool Alliance group and given of herself to others in ways that can't be measured.  Going to the conference was an amazing experience! To join with other like-minded new friends to listen to her wisdom and humor and to reflect on our own home schooling journeys was a true gift.  As I embark on a new school year, this one will be very different.  I now have only one student in our home school and we are preparing our oldest for his first year of college.  I am so glad that I have been able to take Julie's ideas and lessons and create a home school for my kids that they enjoy and that still supports their goals of going to college.  I am thankful for new friends from the conference and a new year.  I am most grateful for having the wisdom of Julie and her friends to rely upon when I start to feel discouraged or alone.  Thank you, Julie Bogart, for sharing so much of yourself with all of us!